


Stake and Circumstance

by musesmistress



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:45:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesmistress/pseuds/musesmistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Food can have strange effects, but never in his wildest dreams did John believe they could do this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"We're not sure what it is yet, but according to the energy readings…" Rodney was ranting on and on about the device they had found on their latest mission. John wasn't really paying attention to him; instead he was watching Elizabeth who seemed to be staring at the middle of the briefing room table. Over the last few minutes John had watched her skin lose its colouring becoming paler. Apparently she wasn't feeling well, hadn’t been for days, but he knew he couldn't do anything now.

They had started seeing each other a few months ago and so far nobody had discovered their relationship yet. They were professional when on duty, sticking to their usual flirting and teasing and keeping contact to a minimum. Not that any of that agreement stopped him from thinking about her most of the day, and now that he was certain she was ill, he was sure she’d be popping into his brain more often.

"I will start running tests immediately and…" Rodney had been saying when Elizabeth flew out of her chair.

"Excuse… me," she mumbled, before she ran out of the room, one hand over her mouth the other across her stomach.

Everyone watched her go in astonishment, Rodney's mouth still open from the sentence he had been half way through saying. John was the first to regain his composure.

"I'll go check on her," he said and left the room to follow Elizabeth. He heard retching sounds when he entered the bathroom and walked slowly down the corridor of separated rooms following the sound. He found Elizabeth in one of the cubicles, her head bent over the toilet and one hand holding onto the sink on her left.

"Go away," she growled at him. "I'd prefer not to have any witnesses for this," she managed to get out before she had to vomit again.

John moved in a little further, thankful the rooms weren’t small and uncomfortable like they usually were on Earth. She shoved him back reminding him she wanted some privacy and stepped back. He watched her turn to the sink to wash her mouth before he spoke.

"You should go and see Beckett," he said as Elizabeth took a towel to wipe her face.

"I'm fine, it's just a little stomach trouble, all that unusual food they serve in the mess hall," she retorted, reminding him of the strange food supplies they had acquired from their latest trade.

"Three days in a row?" he questioned sharply. "Teyla saw you running from your office yesterday, and Lorne mentioned that you left their briefing all of a sudden the day before."

"Well, I…"

"You will go to Beckett," John interrupted her. “Now.” She was too stubborn for him to be polite about this; she needed to see the doctor. Elizabeth was smart and she knew him too well to take his sharp tone as anything other than concern for her.

"Okay, I'll go after our briefing."

"I can do that. Just get Rodney to give me a list of tests and equipment for you."

"But…"

"Infirmary! I'll take you there myself if I have to, to make sure you don't turn around and sneak back into your office," he said firmly.

Elizabeth sighed. John knew only too well she didn’t want to go, she wasn’t afraid of what the doctor would do or say, but she did have difficulty taking a break from her work. If Carson ordered rest, she’d just take her laptop to her room and work there, no interruption but still, no rest. She also knew that John was right, so she complied and followed him to the infirmary.

John waited until she had told Carson her symptoms and made sure she mentioned it wasn't the first time she’d been sick before he walked back to the briefing room. They finished their meeting and John made notes for Elizabeth. Rodney, eager to start his experiments, had told him at the last second that he needed someone with the Ancient gene. He asked, or more appropriately demanded, John help him in the lab.

John couldn't get his mind off Elizabeth through the whole thing, he wanted to go find her and check if she was fine. When Rodney was finally done with his tests, after nearly three hours, John went back to the control room to see if Elizabeth was back in her office. Through the glass walls he could see that her office was empty.

"Has Doctor Weir already been back?" he asked one of the technicians.

"No, sir," the man answered.

John nodded. 'Maybe Beckett sent her back to her room,' he thought and started walking towards the living area. Reaching her quarters, he rang the door chime twice, without getting any answer from inside. Worried, he opened the door himself, only to find her room completely empty, the bed neatly made and her night dress folded tidily on the chair. He also looked into the adjoining bathroom, just to be sure, but it was also empty.

He checked the mess hall and a few other places before heading for the infirmary to see if Carson had kept her in. Entering the main medical room, John noticed that all the beds were empty. A nurse was bandaging a scientist's burned hand, and Doctor Beckett was sitting at his desk, typing on his laptop.

"Do you know where Elizabeth is?" John asked him.

"No lad," the doctor said, shaking his head. "I told her to relax for a few hours somewhere quiet. Maybe she went back to her room?"

"No, I already looked there," John said. "What’s wrong with her? Does she have something serious?" he asked anxiously.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, lad," Carson replied. "She has to tell you herself." The doctor gave him an apologetic smile.

Confused, John left the infirmary, still wondering where Elizabeth could have gone. The city was vast and had a million unused areas and Beckett had told her to go somewhere quiet. She could be almost anywhere. Already on his way back to the control room to start a city-wide sensor scan, John suddenly remembered a place he had shown her a few weeks ago. It was a balcony on one of the unused towers with a beautiful view over the city, and he had taken her there for a picnic.

Abruptly turning on his heels and startling a scientist who had been walking behind him, he went back to the transporter.

Arriving on their secret balcony, he first thought that it was empty, until he saw Elizabeth sitting in one of the corners. Her back was leaning against the wall and she had her knees drawn to her chest and her face hidden in her hands on top of her knees.

“Elizabeth?” he asked tentatively, not knowing if she had noticed him or not.

She looked up, and he could see streaks of tears on her face. It had to be bad if she had been reduced to tears. He sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Her body shook for a moment as she tried to suppress the tears. John tightened his grip on her and eventually she gave in and let the tears go, sobbing into his jacket.

“What is it, Elizabeth?” he asked quietly, not knowing if he wanted to hear the answer at all. “Carson wouldn’t tell me anything.”

Elizabeth briefly shook her head. “I’m fine.”

John quirked a brow but couldn’t stop the relieved breath. “Then why are you crying?”

“I’m pregnant,” Elizabeth said.

“What?” John asked. He wasn’t completely sure he had heard what she’d said, but then again if he had heard right it had to be a mistake.

“I’m pregnant.”

“You can’t be pregnant,” he said. “We use protection, you have an implant. We can’t possibly be safer than that.”

Elizabeth reached out and pulled up the sleeve of her jacket. A fresh set of stitches ran a thin line down her upper arm. A small amount of blood had seeped through and clotted over the black thread.

“Carson had to take the implant out. It was playing havoc on my hormones, making me sicker than I should be right now. But I’m definitely pregnant.” She sniffed and produced a tissue from her pocket before adding, “He’s checking the implant to make sure it didn’t fail.”

“I’m guessing it did,” John said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

~~**~~

“Rodney,” Elizabeth said attempting to sound her usual chipper self. The look on Rodney’s face as he turned to acknowledge her said she had failed. “What do you have?”

“Many, many things,” Rodney started. “Everything from Ancient brick-a-brac to...”

“You called me here for a reason,” she said tartly. It was too early in the morning for his snide comments and chances are he’d been up all night as well. The combination of two tired people was dangerous, at best.

“All this stuff came from the lab we found above the west pier. This one,” he said pausing to connect his computer to the largest of the devices “looks as though it could be some sort of weapon or explosive.”

Elizabeth instinctively took a step back. She normally wouldn’t have done so, Rodney wasn’t stupid or irresponsible; he wouldn’t set off a charge for the fun of it or even by accident. She’d like to think it was because she was so tired, but she couldn’t stop the thought that it was something more, slightly protective of her child. Even if she wasn’t sure she wanted it yet.

“You brought me here on the assumption that you found an ancient bomb? Rodney, its 6:30 in the morning, do you have any idea how much work I have to do?”

She turned, leaving the lab and a gobsmacked Rodney in her wake. She paused outside the door, knowing it was still open behind her and considered apologising for a moment. Deciding he needed a good slap in the ego for a change, she took a step away from the lab.

The explosion took her by surprise, a wave of heat pressing against her back, pushing her across the corridor to the opposite wall. She had a moment’s thought that there was no burning pain with the heat before her head hit the wall and she blacked out.

~~**~~

“Colonel,” Carson said catching John before he could find his way to Elizabeth’s bed. He beckoned him over to the medical lab and closed the door behind them. John quirked a brow at him, curious about his reasons for a private conversation at such a time. “Elizabeth’s fine,” Carson said, pre-empting the question.

“Rodney tell you what happened?” John asked.

“I said Elizabeth’s fine,” Carson pointed out. “Rodney’s in a coma, hit his head pretty hard, I had to medically induce the coma and administer drugs that would prevent his brain from swelling. Well, stop it from swelling anymore than normal.”

John stopped and ran a hand across his forehead. Aside from the blood stain on one wall and the objects scattered around the place, the lab was virtually untouched. The laptop Rodney had been using was completely dead and currently in Radek’s hands in hopes of recovering some data from the hard drive.

“John,” Carson started. John looked back at him; the doctor had never used his name before, choosing always to refer to someone by their rank – aside from Elizabeth. “I know the baby’s yours. I’ve known about the two of you for some time, I made a point of checking her implant to make sure you didn’t end up...”

“Parents?” John finished as Carson trailed off.

“Unexpectedly parents,” Carson corrected.

“Well I guess you missed something,” John said sitting down in the nearest chair.

“I thought so too,” Carson said. “But after I removed the implant, I ran a few tests.” He paused and John couldn’t help but look up expectantly. “It’s working perfectly, not a thing wrong with it or the drug it administers.”

“So how did Elizabeth get pregnant, if her birth control is working as expected?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t let me take a blood sample before she left last time. If there’s nothing there to suggest a reason, we might have to start looking at other... possibilities.”

“How long until you know what’s going on?” John asked. He didn’t want to sit here all day considering the possibilities of what could have happened.

“Her blood work should be done in a few minutes,” Carson said. John nodded and watched the doctor for a moment. There was something on his mind, something he wanted to say that was obviously uncomfortable.

“What?”

Carson sighed. “I need to make sure,” he said. “I want to keep Elizabeth here for a few more hours, make sure that device didn’t have any side effects on her or the baby. But I need permission to discreetly check the rest of the female population.”

“You think whatever.... deactivated Elizabeth’s implant might have affected others too?”

“I do,” Carson said, “and if that’s the case then the women need to know there’s a possibility they are or can easily get pregnant.”

“Do it,” John said. “Use a different medical bay and lab if you need to,” he added before getting up. “Carson,” John said pausing at the door. “Patient confidentiality or not, we need to know if there are others, who they are and who the child belongs to.”

“Aye,” Carson said. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

~~**~~

“What’s going on?” Ronon asked stopping at the foot of Elizabeth’s bed. His brow was quirked as he studied the still unconscious woman in the bed and took in the still man in the bed on her right. Teyla joined him a moment later and John could see the question forming in her mind.

“One of Rodney’s experiments didn’t go so well,” John said.

“Did he blow up another lab?”

“Not exactly, it was more like a shockwave than an actual explosion. The room’s fine, just one massive mess with blood stain included.”

“Elizabeth was in the room at the time?” Teyla asked, quickly moving down between the beds and closer to John.

“Just outside it, I think. She’s just asleep at the moment, Rodney’s in a coma.”

“What happened yesterday?” Ronon asked moving to sit on Rodney’s other side from the two. John’s brow creased for a moment before he remembered the meeting Elizabeth had practically ran from the previous morning. For a moment he considered saying nothing, or telling them they would find out in time. But Teyla was a woman and she’d find out sooner rather than later. He caught sight of Carson gathering his nurses and equipment, the glance at Teyla suggesting he wanted to speak with her about it first.

“Elizabeth’s pregnant,” he said. “Her birth control implant didn’t work and Carson doesn’t know why yet. He’ll be testing every woman on the base to make sure no one else was affected.”

“And you’re sitting here because...”

John caught Teyla’s motion, the slightly embarrassed look away, the biting of her lower lip and the small smile as she concentrated on Elizabeth for a moment too long. She already knew, John should have guessed that much, she and Elizabeth often had what he had deemed _‘Women in power nights’_ where they locked themselves in one of their rooms and talked for hours on end. Their relationship had probably come up at some point, maybe Teyla had even guessed.

“It’s my baby,” John said.

“Teyla,” Carson said saving them from the awkward moment’s silence. Teyla didn’t hesitate to move away from them, practically running from the bed to talk to Carson. He watched, knowing Ronon was eyeing him suspiciously, as Carson talked to her before they left the room followed by two nurses.

“Always thought you were more interested in Teyla,” Ronon said. “Though you do have a tendency to flirt with Weir.”

“Rodney’ll tell you I flirt with everyone,” John said offhanded. He didn’t want this conversation right now; he wanted Elizabeth to wake up so they could figure this out. He wanted the next few hours of testing to be over so he could know for sure no one else was affected and he wanted to find out what exactly had stopped the birth control they had relied so much on over the last few months.

They hadn’t been together that long. Sure they’d lived together in Atlantis for almost two years now, but things hadn’t changed between them until one quiet evening when even Elizabeth had run out of things to do and he’d cornered her about relaxing and letting her hair down for a few hours. He’d gone so far as to suggest a walk around the quieter sections of the city and ended up going with her. ’It was your idea,’ she’d said. The same flirty smile, tilted head and raised brow that always made him think she was two steps away from pinning him to a wall for a mind blowing kiss.

They’d talked about everything, past, present and future. Covering relationships, colleges, embarrassing family members and parties they longed to forget. They’d discussed people in the city, and it was his mistake to ask how often she saw Doctor Heightmeyer that made her stop and turn out onto a balcony. She’d admitted she hadn’t seen the doctor in months, admitted that she had nightmares that chilled her to the bone, dreams about what could happen if she made the wrong choice. He’d even been shocked to find out she’d cried herself to sleep over her choices when he was being transformed into one of the bug creatures.

She hadn’t looked at him the whole time and when he’d finally stepped up close to her to tell her he didn’t blame her and no one else ever would, he saw the silent tears on her cheeks. The simple supportive hug he’d given her that night had turned into the kiss that had started their relationship and led them to this moment. It took him a moment to realise Ronon had said something and he turned to apologise and ask what he said only to find him pushed back in the corner next to Rodney’s bed with his head tipped down for a nap.

He should have been paying attention to Rodney; his friend had been more badly hurt than Elizabeth had but the pregnancy made him think of her as more delicate. He’d initially sat himself between their beds, but as time moved on and as Elizabeth first woke, he moved closer to her bed.

He felt guilty, he probably would until they were both out of the infirmary, but he was more concerned for Elizabeth, he couldn't help himself. He loved her. He’d never told her that, something he planned on remedying when she woke again. That and how happy he was that she was having his baby.

He shifted in his seat, got comfortable and gave her hand a squeeze before closing his eyes and following Ronon's example.

~~**~~

Carson gave a deep sigh. He’d been doing the tests all day and still had one more woman to see. It was hard work explaining the reason he needed to see them, to check their implant and the effects of other birth control as well as warn them about the possibility of getting pregnant. But the hardest part was telling the few that they were already pregnant. Three so far, including Elizabeth and one of them was a nurse he’d brought with him to begin with. She’d broken into tears when he’d told her and Teyla had taken her out of the room while he tested the other nurse.

Teyla was cleared, she had – even while undergoing the tests – told Carson there was no way she was pregnant. The current Athosian festival required little food and no sex for the past three weeks and the next five. He’d had his misgivings about this particular festival last year when she’d explained it to him. He was reassured when her explanation made him think of the Muslims festival of Ramadan - food in the morning and evening but never during the day. The only difference between the Athosians and the Muslims was that they had set times instead of just between daylight hours and sex was strictly forbidden.

Either way, he was having a hard time with this particular set of tests. He was thankful Teyla had stayed to help, her comfort when someone found out they were expecting a baby was useful – to say the least. Later on, when all this was over he’d have to tell John and/or Elizabeth who was pregnant and with whom. The worrying thing was that so far, the women had been reasonably close to each other. Amanda Crown was only two floors below Elizabeth, directly below her in fact and Maja Lindstrom only a few doors from her. If they could find a pattern to the pregnancies then they’d probably find the problem.

Another problem was that Amanda was on the pill instead of using the implant, which turned the problem from one type of birth control to all forms. The only way to be 100% safe now was to avoid having sex altogether.

“Sarah,” Carson said spotting the Lieutenant approaching the medical bay. “Come on in and take a seat.” He indicated to the bed he’d used.

“What’s going on? I heard rumours that you were only testing women for something.”

“Aye,” Carson said with a sigh. “We’ve noticed a problem with the birth control being used in the city. It’s become ineffective.” Her eyes lit up with fear and Carson’s heart sank, fear meant there was a chance she was pregnant.

“The implant as well?” she asked tentatively. Carson only nodded. “How long hasn’t it been working? I mean, if it’s only stopped working in the last few weeks then it won’t be a problem...”

“The longest term we have so far is three months.”

“Crap,” she said dropping her head. “Just my luck the one time I get to have sex in the last year and the stupid thing doesn’t work.”

It would be just his luck for her to be pregnant from that one time too. He pushed that thought away as she raised the sleeve of her shirt and prepared her for a blood test.

“This is punishment for agreeing to be on an off world team full of men.” Carson paused, his brow raised. “I didn’t sleep with all of them, just one,” she said hastily. “Corrigan is just plain... eww!”

“Forgive me,” Teyla said interrupting the conversation. “You were off world when you... slept with...”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Kinda had a little too much of the local moonshine, talked Malik into it.”

Carson finished applying the bandage to the talkative lieutenant and handed her a specimen cup. She smiled at him before jumping off the table and heading for the bathroom.

“If she is pregnant, could it not be an isolated incident?” Teyla asked.

“Not with the implant, she’d have been tested regularly to make sure it works for the first two months after it was installed. And for it to fail at that particular time is a little too coincidental for my tastes.” Teyla nodded. “Let’s just hope she’s not pregnant.”

Sarah returned a moment later with her urine sample and Carson quickly did the test. His heart sank as the stick of paper turned blue. So far Sarah had been cooperative and talkative beyond requirement, but how she’d react to being told the results of her one night stand with her commanding officer was a whole new situation.

“I’m sorry, Sarah. The test is positive. You’re pregnant.” He hated those words, in the last two days he’d had to say them a total of four times.

The colour drained from Sarah’s face and she looked down at her hands resting idly in her lap. This was Teyla’s part, the crying woman who didn’t expect the result she got, the touch of denial and the bargaining for a retest because there was no possible way her implant could have failed. Not just from one night off world. There were at least ten more that had regular intercourse and their tests were fine.

The problem was Sarah put the pattern off. The three pregnant women he’d had before, Elizabeth, Amanda and Maja, were close enough to each other to form a pattern, but Sarah hadn’t even been in the city. He could hear Teyla talking to Sarah as he picked up his computer and began filling in the final report. He paused half way through and pulled up the sleeping arrangements for the women again, hoping that there was still some pattern to the pregnancies that he could work from. But his luck was gone. Sarah was far from the others, at the bottom of the tower and on the opposite side from them, he’d now have to find something these four women had in common.


	2. Chapter 2

“There’s a naturally produced enzyme being enhanced by something. Quite a few of the women are showing an increase, the more of this enzyme in their system, the less effective the birth control is. So far there are only the four pregnancies,” Carson explained.

“Air?” Ronon suggested. “They all breathe.”

“So do the rest of the women,” Carson said.

“This enzyme must be coming from somewhere,” Teyla said. “It cannot be coincidence that these particular women have been affected.”

“The water then?” Ronon tried.

“Again, that’s something all the women have in common, more of them should be pregnant and not just showing slight elevations of the enzyme.”

“They must have something in common,” Ronon said. “A virus?” John caught the flick of his eyes to the door before he heard the clearing of a female throat.

“Excuse us,” Elizabeth said her voice a little sing-song. John turned around to see her standing in the door way with Amanda, Sarah and Maja beside her. “If you don’t mind, we’d like to be in on this meeting as it concerns us.”

“We’re not talking about anything life changing,” John said in defence.

“No,” Elizabeth said calmly. “You’re trying to work out what us four women have in common besides being pregnant and in Atlantis with you.”

“Don’t make it sound like a prison sentence,” John said a little hurt. Elizabeth smiled and took several steps into the room to stand behind John’s chair. She placed one hand on his shoulder as the others took seats around the room.

“So what do an Expedition leader, a nurse, an off world lieutenant and an engineer have in common?”

“Three ration bars, two bottles of water and a partridge in a pear tree?” Sarah said. John tried hard not to laugh, his face distorting as Elizabeth’s nails curled into his shoulder in warning.

“Don’t forget our keen fashion sense,” Amanda added.

“Speaking of fashion,” Sarah said, a finger pointing in Amanda’s direction before she turned to Elizabeth. “Are we likely to get uniforms that fit big fat pregnant bellies?”

“Maybe we’ll get to wear something more comfortable,” Maja suggested hopefully.

“And maybe one day we’ll survive Tuna Tuesday.” Amanda said sarcastically. As such comments usually were, but it sparked in John’s brain. Elizabeth’s main places were the control room, her office, the mess and her room. The other three only had one of those locations in common with her – The mess.

“It’s the food,” he said abruptly cutting someone off in the middle of a sentence. “The only place you four have in common is the mess hall...”

“So does every other woman,” Carson said. “We accepted a food trade with a people only four months ago. Elizabeth is the furthest along at three months. But that still doesn’t explain just these four lovely women.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Carson. Besides, the food was cleared,” Elizabeth said. “The labs ran tests to make sure there were no interlaced drugs or... or problems with the insecticides they used. They came back clean.”

“For all we know, out here there are probably a million and one products we don’t know how to detect.”

“And at least one of those neutralizes birth control,” Maja said somewhat downcast.

“Yes,” John said. “That’s all true, but not everyone eats the same things. It doesn’t have to be all of our recent food supply, just one thing. So we narrow it down,” he paused to think for a moment. “Elizabeth’s vegetarian, so...”

“I’m not,” Sarah said with a hand raised.

“Neither am I,” Maja added and John watched as Amanda shook her head.

“That still means it is not the meat we procured,” Teyla said. “If it were in the meat, Elizabeth would not be in this conversation now.”

“Aye, so what vegetables don’t you like?” Carson said turning to Amanda.

“Maybe you should ask me a slightly different question,” Sarah interrupted. “Out of the new stuff I only eat the turnips, broccoli thingies, peas and carrots. The rest I think tastes really weird.”

“The rest of you eat those, right?” John asked and looked around at the nodding women.

Silence followed and John couldn’t help but look up at Elizabeth, she’d paled, but he couldn’t decide if it was from the conversation or the fact she was pregnant. He looked around, the table was filled with people, not a single chair without a person in it, and then there was Elizabeth still on her feet behind him. He pushed back slightly intending to get up and offer his seat, but the need to show her their relationship wasn’t going to change because of this seized him and he instinctively reached up and pulled her down to sit in his lap. Elizabeth gave him a questioning look, one hand still on his shoulder, her arm now tucked behind his neck and the other against his chest.

“You looked like you needed to sit down.”

“Most men offer their chair,” Teyla said with a smile. “Not their lap.”

“Everyone in the city probably knows about us and what’s going on despite the attempt to keep it quiet so it doesn’t matter if I’m offering Elizabeth my lap or my chair.”

“So how do we narrow four food groups down to one?” Ronon asked.

“I think the more important thing is to take all four off the plates,” Elizabeth said getting up and vanishing from the room for a moment.

“I’ll have to retest them,” Carson said. “Compare them to the previous lab results see if I can’t find out what it is that’s making their bodies produce the enzyme.” He gave a sigh.

“Okay,” Elizabeth said stepping back in. “But not you. Have Doctor Keller do it, you need to keep an eye on Rodney. In the mean time, all women in the city should be made aware that until further notice any form of intercourse should be done with extra protection.”

“Except us, as it’s already too late,” Sarah pointed out.

“In the meantime,” John said. “Maybe a team should go back to Stara and talk to the farmers, see if there’s something specific they do to these foods that we could look into.”

“Soil samples and the like would be nice,” Carson said.

“Alright,” Elizabeth said and looked over at Teyla. “Take your team to Stara and see what you can get. I’ll put Lorne’s team together with Radek to work out what happened in that lab.” She patted his shoulder and the meeting disbanded.

~~**~~

Radek cursed and let his head fall forward, chin to chest. He’d managed to get the power working on Rodney’s laptop but so far the machine wasn’t being all that cooperative. He’d managed to get into the operating system once, but shortly after that the machine crashed and now all it did was pause at the system screen. Giving one more determined sigh, Radek stabbed at the power button and detached the battery pack.

“Do we have another battery?” he asked no one in particular as he checked the serial number. Someone placed a pack beside him and he mumbled his thanks as he picked it up. He caught a flicker of blue as the person sat down and he looked up to see Elizabeth perched on the next stool. “Elizabeth,” he said almost dropping the battery. “I... I...”

“Just carry on. I’m guessing you didn’t find anything out yet so I’ll wait,” Elizabeth told him with a grin.

“I was trying to get into the operating system to check the logs and see if there was any saved data from the test,” Radek explained as he fit the battery. “But so far I’ve only made it as far as the first screen. I’m going to attempt to back up the data onto my computer and see if I can read the logs that way.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Did you understand any of what I said?”

“Absolutely,” Elizabeth said with a firm nod. “I understood the part about backing up.”

Radek chuckled and smiled at her. The frustration level he had suffered a few minutes ago had vanished in the face of her joking manner. He switched on the computer before turning back to her.

“I’ll let you know when I find something,” he offered.

Elizabeth placed a hand on his arm. “Take your time and don’t stress too much about it. Carson’s sure Rodney will be fine in a few days.”

~~**~~

After leaving Radek, Elizabeth checked her watch and made her way to the infirmary. She knew Carson wouldn’t be there, he was busy testing the food in one of the labs. She’d be stopping by to see how he was doing later, but for now she wanted an update on Rodney. When she’d told Radek he was doing better she honestly didn’t know, but the last thing she needed was another scientist in the infirmary, even if it was stress related. She stopped at Rodney’s bed, not at all shocked to see Teyla sitting at his side with one of the books she’d lent the woman in hand.

“Any change?” Elizabeth asked. Teyla jumped; engrossed in her book she hadn’t noticed anything different.

“No,” Teyla said with an exasperated sigh. “Though Doctor Keller tells me that is a good sign. She said at least he was not getting worse and there is hope for him yet. How are you faring?”

“My head hurts like hell, my stomach hates me and I’d love nothing more right now than to crawl under my bed and stay there until next year.”

Teyla gave a laugh. She wasn’t completely joking, her head did hurt, but there was so much going on up there right now it wasn’t at all shocking. Between worry about Rodney, figuring out what exactly happened in the lab, John and Ronon off world and four pregnant women in the city, she was surprised she had space in there to worry about John’s still relaxed attitude to her being pregnant.

They needed to talk, they both knew it, but the current mess required attention first and at the end of this they’d be sitting in horrible silence until one of them thought of something to say. She wanted to go first. Tell him she hadn’t been messing around the last few months, she wouldn’t have let him in her bed if she had been and she would love for their casual relationship to turn into something more promising. She wanted the baby, here, on Earth or on some random planet with no Stargate – it didn’t matter to her so long as he was there with her.

She couldn’t imagine what the others were going through; Sarah had made one stupid mistake and ended up pregnant without any part of it being her fault. Yet because she’d gotten drunk on duty and slept with a superior, Elizabeth had to punish her in some way, shape or form. If only to show others they couldn’t let everything go because there were no solid rules out here. As for Maja and Amanda, both were in relationships and both were seeing the opposite to their status. Amanda was a nurse and a member of the Canadian military, but her partner was a scientist and both Maja and her partner were civilian. If anyone else on this base deserved to be reprimanded, it was her and John, not them.

“Something else on your mind?” Teyla asked. Elizabeth focused on her, reading the concern instantly.

“Nothing outside the mess we’re in right now. But I guess I should be thankful.”

“Thankful?” Jennifer asked joining the conversation.

“Yeah, could have been every woman in the city,” Elizabeth offered. “Then we’d be looking at half the population being replaced and reprimanded.” Elizabeth sighed. “Why does Rodney have to have such bad timing? Couldn’t he find this machine and mess with it four months ago, or four months from now?”

“Because he is Rodney?” Teyla said.

“He is indeed,” Jennifer said moving down the side of the bed to check the scientist. “And he’s improving, stats are up and so are his brainwaves. I think he’s listening to us.”

“Tell him to mind his own business,” Elizabeth said. “I need to check in with Carson and get back to the control room before John and Ronon get back. Let me know if anything changes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Keller responded as Elizabeth walked away.

~~**~~

“They’re unbelievable,” John said. He was in no mood to make jokes, or even simply say hello to Elizabeth as she came down the stairs to join them. “They are collaborating with the Wraith,” he spat stopping her in her tracks.

“They’re what?”

“The stuff they get to grow some of the vegetables comes from the Wraith, but only the leaders know about it. Not one of the poor people farming and harvesting knows that the reason they have so many kids is because they’re eating foods poisoned by the Wraith. The stuff is designed to pad out the populations of the planets they trade with.”

Elizabeth just stared at him. He couldn’t blame her, he’d been shocked to hear it too, but the walk back to the gate had been plenty of time to turn shock and confusion to downright anger and disgust. She’d probably get to that point later tonight when they were getting ready for bed and finally talking about what they were going to do.

“We are _not_ trading with them anymore,” he said.

“Not after you told Penan where to stuff his turnips,” Ronon said chiming in at the right moment.

“You did what?” Elizabeth said.

“I might have suggested a new storage place for his Wraith veg. He didn’t care, Elizabeth. _‘All to insure the survival our people,’_ he said. I’m getting a little tired with the Pegasus’ all for one and one for us routine.”

“We could have still traded for the other foods, turned away the turnips or just disposed of them another way.”

“You want to trade with Wraith worshippers?” John said seriously frustrated now, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No,” Elizabeth said sharply. “But in case you haven’t noticed we have one hundred and twenty three people to feed and four more mouths on the way. The supplies from Earth aren’t enough anymore and they refuse to add more, as we proved in our first year here, there are other places we can source food from.”

John stayed quiet, she was right. He’d been in that meeting; the SGC only supplied the bare minimum for their people. That unfortunately didn’t include any other Athosians living in or visiting Atlantis. Not to mention those in the infirmary when something went wrong and any other people they happened to bring back for short visits. The only place they had extra supplies was to add to their off world field packs and those were meagre enough as it was.

Elizabeth’s hand came up to her temple and John suddenly felt guilty. He’d acted rashly, concerned more about ethics than the people he worked with and even more in his face was the fact that Elizabeth would suffer the most. Complaints from people about the lack of food, back on rations and hating it as well as the stress of starting new negotiations with someone else for food. That was assuming they could find someone else to trade with. He watched as she drew the hand down over her paled face and dropped it back to her side before he stepped forward.

“I’m sorry,” he said and waited for her to meet his eye before he continued. “I shouldn’t have just ended the alliance, but what else was I supposed to think when he admitted collaborating with the Wraith. They deceived their own people as well as us, lied for years that the Wraith didn’t attack out of sheer dumb luck instead of self preservation. He didn’t care, Elizabeth. He wouldn’t have cared if we’d started a war, so long as the Wraith didn’t attack them.”

Elizabeth nodded. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. To go back and attempt to set things right would only show them we’re desperate, and I don’t think we’re that bad yet.” She turned and nodded to a sergeant standing off to the side of the gate room and then turned back to John. “We need to deal with Sarah and Malik,” she said, “they’ve been waiting ten minutes in the conference room.”

John nodded and swallowed before taking off his vest and handing it over to the sergeant. He gave Ronon a _‘let the fun begin’_ look before following Elizabeth up the stairs to the conference room.

~~**~~

“We were stuck there over night. They were in the middle of their harvest festival and wouldn't do business until it ended,” Sarah said. She didn’t like these meetings, even though she had no real reasonable defence of herself right now, she had at least been given the opportunity to explain what happened. “They invited us to the feast and Corrigan said it would be rude and potentially damaging to our relationship with them to decline.”

She had been sitting here with Malik for almost half an hour and it had been awkward, at least had been to start with. He hadn’t really said anything when she’d told him she was pregnant and explained what had happened and this was the first time he’d seen or spoken to her since. When she’d apologised for her actions he’d brushed it off, telling her he wasn’t sorry. They had agreed before Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard had interrupted that they wouldn’t let it happen again, but he wanted to be at least minimally involved with the baby.

“Part of the celebration was this drink, we thought it would be fine, everyone was drinking it, even the kids. But it hit you like a shot of Bacardi and we were all drinking full glasses of it. It was in our reports, sir; we all got a little... drunk.” She looked sheepish for a moment and twiddled with her fingers in her lap before looking back up at him somewhat determined to get through this without looking like an idiot – if at all possible. “I convinced Malik to uh... share my tent...”

“Which wasn't in your report,” Colonel Sheppard said. Sarah bit on her lip as Doctor Weir arched a brow, her eyes still fixed on the screen as she read the report over again.

“We decided not to mention it, sir,” Sarah offered. “Nothing should have happened.” She looked down at her stomach thankful, at least for now, that she wasn’t far enough along for it to show. “I guess it did.”

Silence fell for a moment. Sarah didn’t dare look up at either of them, hoping they weren’t whispering a quick conversation like the last people she’d sat in a meeting with, a decision made on the moment wasn’t a good decision at all.

“Captain Warstof,” John said at last and Sarah dared a look. “You’ll receive an official letter of reprimand, a copy of which will go on your service file. You’re dismissed.”

Malik gave a small thanks and reassuringly squeezed Sarah’s shoulder as he got up from the table and left the room. She waited, chewing on her lower lip as the door closed behind him and then looked expectantly at her commanders.

“Sarah,” Elizabeth said taking over the conversation. “Regardless of the circumstances that have brought you here, you need to understand we can’t let this incident go unnoticed. If we let this pass purely because there are other mitigating circumstances it won’t be fair to anyone else. You spent the night with a higher ranking military officer. For being drunk on an off world mission you both get the reprimand letter in your files. But what you did while drunk calls for something a little more noticeable.”

Sarah swallowed hard and sat back in the chair. They could do anything right now, knock her down a rank, send her back to Earth, whatever they wanted. No matter who she appealed to, she’d have to live with the fact that she seduced a man of a higher rank.

“You’re being placed on light duty for the duration of your pregnancy,” Sheppard said. “After your maternity leave, you’ll be given the option to remain on light duty, return to Earth or join another off world team. You will however not be permitted to return to Captain Warstof’s team and any fraternization between the two of you from this point on will mean your immediate transfer to Earth. Report to Captain Coffie in the morning for reassignment.”

“Yes, sir,” she said sounding a little too relieved. She was still staying in Atlantis and she could still go off world after the baby was born. “Thank you,” she added and got up to leave the room. She paused before the door and turned back to them. “Malik can still help me with the baby, right?” Doctor Weir’s smile caught her attention first and Sarah relaxed as she nodded.

~~**~~

“We have officially lost a trading partner, gained four possible members of the expedition and...” John paused in the middle of the Elizabeth’s room. She was sitting on the bed, her back to him and she hadn’t turned or even moved since he’d stepped in. “Elizabeth?”

She moved her head slightly to acknowledge that she was listening, but didn’t speak. John dropped his bag beside the sofa and moved further into the room, closer to her bed. He mulled over the possibility that she was crying, watching her bared back for signs. But she was sitting straight, her back straight and shoulders squared and hands folded in her lap where her pyjama top sat.

“Do you think we’d make good parents?”

The question was strangely unexpected. He paused for a moment wondering why she’d suddenly had this particular thought. Out of all the possible questions he would have pinned her for this wasn’t one of them, it was his question only with a singular tone. _‘Do you think I would make a good parent?’_.

“You will,” he said. “You deal with children almost all day. Rodney’s enough to cover a class of six year olds on his own, add in a bickering Radek, me and Ronon and you’re the headmistress of a very busy school.” He knew she was smiling, her shoulders had relaxed a little and she was fiddling with her fingers in her lap. “What’s really on your mind?”

Her shoulders slumped almost instantly and her head dropped forward. A sense of dread and the niggling that he’d forgotten to tell her something important washed over him. Had he told her he loved her when she’d woken in the infirmary? No, he’d fallen asleep and woken up to an empty bed; she’d left without disturbing him.

“We didn’t plan this; I don’t want to force this...”

“No,” he said knowing where this was going before she could even say she didn’t want him to be here if he wanted nothing to do with the baby. “I want this,” he said stubbornly. “I want more than this,” he added finally moving around to crouch in front of her. “Elizabeth.” He swallowed as he tilted her chin up slightly to study her face. “I love you. I’ve wanted to say that for so long.” His thumb ran across her cheek as her eyes came up at last to look at him.

“Why didn’t you?” she asked, her voice low and slightly timid.

“I guess you want a better answer than ‘because I’m an idiot’?” Elizabeth smiled at him. “I didn’t want what we had to end, I was afraid if I told you how I felt then you’d tell me it couldn’t ever move forward and that would be the end of it.”

“I like your other answer better.”

“More fitting, huh,” he said with a cheeky grin. “What made you stop halfway through getting changed?”

Elizabeth’s hand came up to the one still resting against her chin, she hooked her fingers over the top and pulled his fingers away before lowering his hand to her lap. He thought the move was just to stop his idle thumb before she adjusted her hold on him and flattened his palm against her stomach. The curve was slight, barely even noticeable, but Elizabeth drew his fingers across the very base of her stomach highlighting the raise that had started. She was barely more than three months along and already it was becoming evident. He licked his lips.

“I never noticed it before.”

“You’re usually too busy with other parts of my anatomy,” Elizabeth said coyly.

“Beautiful women should not be so cocky,” John said. “It’s distracting.”

He took her top from her hands and helped her into it before returning to his bag. He pulled out his night clothes and quickly changed into them dumping the bag on the sofa as he did so. He could feel Elizabeth’s eyes on him as he moved back to the bag and fished something out. When he sat down on the bed at last and tucked his feet under the covers it looked as though he was only carrying his War and Peace book. Elizabeth’s eyebrow went up.

“I thought we could have a nice quiet evening,” he said. “No one will disturb us, on penalty of harvest duty on the mainland next month, so we can just sit here, read, talk – whatever.”

“Except that the last book I got from home I read and is now in the care of one Teyla Emmagan.”

“That’s where you’d be wrong.” John grinned. “I caught Teyla with one of your books the other week and asked her which ones you had. I tried to look around here for them once, but could only find two.”

“They tend to make their way around the women,” Elizabeth offered.

“Yes, well, I thought there’s no fun being in love with someone if I don’t know what she reads, so...” He produced a parcel from under his book and handed it to her. He watched as she unwrapped two new books from her favourite author and turned to him with a grin.

“This one...” she said holding up one in particular.

“Was released two weeks ago, I had it sent in that emergency medical supply shipment they sent through the gate.” He found himself quickly in a hug, her arms tight around his neck for a moment before she settled in beside him and studied both books before opening the latest. Following her example, John opened his book and settled in down.

~~**~~

 **Just over seven months later**  
It was a hard choice, something she was finding near impossible to choose between and eventually decided there was no answer. The sunset off the horizon of the ocean surrounding Atlantis was neither more nor less beautiful than the baby girl in her arms. Even at one month old and all the sleepless nights and stressful days Elizabeth couldn’t get over the fact that she and John had created the little lady stretching in her arms.

She rocked Amelia gently, watching the sunset from the corner of her eyes as she watched her daughter’s eyes close slowly. She’d put up a fight now and again, opened them wide and gaze up at her with wide green eyes. Elizabeth smiled as her eyes finally closed and she slowed her rocking right down to a barely noticeable motion as the door behind her opened.

“Carson’s having a heart attack,” John said; his tone of voice now naturally low around her and the baby. “Maja and Sarah are both in labour.”

“He keeps telling me he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“Is that why Keller was in charge with you?”

“I wondered if you noticed his complete lack of appearances until after she was clean and sleeping.”

“Well at least he’s not avoiding you now, unlike Rodney who’s going out of his way to be somewhere you’re not.”

“I noticed that,” she said as Amelia shifted and a flicker of discomfort crossed her tiny features. “That’s why I’m up here. He needs to be in the control room right now and if he wasn’t yelling most of the time, I’d be there instead of out here trying to work out if she’s more beautiful than the sunset.”

She felt John’s hands rest on her hips and his breath against her ear as he leaned over to look at his daughter. Amelia gave a sigh in her sleep.

“Sleeping like a Sheppard.”

“I thought it was sleeping like a baby? Or are they the same thing?”

“You should be thankful you know,” he said reaching around with one hand to try and flatten the tuft of black hair that poked out over the blanket. “I can’t tickle you for comments like that while you’re holding Amelia.”

“I’m never going to let it go that you slept through me screaming at you when I was in labour.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” he paused to lick his lips. “Could you find a better way to wake me up next time?”

“Firstly, next time?” Elizabeth asked turning to face him. “Secondly, you didn’t respond to anything except the glass of water in your face.”

“I’d had a hectic day,” he said in defence.

“Welcome to my world.” Elizabeth said then turned her attention back to the sleeping baby. “As for you, you’ve got trouble on your little hands. Busy parents and a crazy father.”

“Hey,” John protested.

“But on the plus side,” she continued ignoring him. “You’ll always be loved.”


End file.
